Decision time

OR
Well I got a bit of bad news yesterday; the Open University have changed their postgrad research regulations so that my application recently cannot now be considered until next year with a view to starting in October 2005; I had been hoping to start theis coming spring. I also notice that the fees have increased so that there is no longer an advantage to studyig with the OU with regard to fees and the downside to that is that I will have to find a much bigger revenue stream to assist me if I go ahead. So I'm also looking at Durham theology department who probably now will be asking a similar fee.

What would I research? Well the OU proposal was "Pagan Rites and Alternative worship: corporate spirituality and patterns of affiliation in 'liquid modernity'."
The main focus would be to examine the place of ritual and religious affiliation in postmodern spirituality and under 'liquid modernity' through comparing and contrasting these two types of corporate-ritual-using groups. This would be to follow and test the intuition of Sarah Pike: "I would add another dimension to the theory of secularization and personalization: the rise of alternate ritual spaces in which people find religious community." [, p.172, New Age and Neopagan religions in America].

However, I had a deal going with God [which I now have to take seriously and wonder also whether it was right to say this] that if the OU thing fell through that I would look at doing the original idea at Durham; ie 'The powers and corporate humanity' which would jump off from NT language regarding Thrones, principalities and powers etc and loink up with Girard's [and others'] thought about mimesis and develop some of James Alison and Alsitair McFadyen's ideas in order to head towards a Christian approach to cultural and social theory.

So What should I do? Ideas in a comments box ...

Academic claims musicals are the new religion

EducationGuardian.co.uk | higher news |: "The Rev Ian Bradley from the school of divinity believes musicals like Les Miserables and The Lion King provide their audiences with a distinct philosophy of life, as well as entertainment. Churches have a great deal to learn from modern musicals and could usefully incorporate their spiritual and theological values, and the pastoral care they offer, into their services,". I wonder if he goes on to discuss the fact that a large number of popular modern worship songs sound like they come from a Westend musical? I would say that perhaps this is an unconscious aping of what is commented on in the book [apparently]. It probably also has a huge amount to do with the musical forms,: dramatic build-ups, tear-jerking chord structures and satisfying resolutions. Both the musicals and the worship songs are trying to send people home feeling uplifted and as if they have experienced a range of emotional states ...
Too cynical?

:: Xinhuanet - English ::

:: Xinhuanet - English ::: "eveloping new clean and renewable energies, such as solar energy, methane, wind energy, and ocean energy, is important for solving China's power shortage.

Among these energies, the use of wind in power generation is at the most advanced level of commercialization."



The more I read about it the more I realise that China is the big nut to crack on environment, closely followed by India. The helpful side of this sobering picture is that the market for renewable energy related technologies is huge and the economies of scale should benefit everyone. Invest in renewables for marketting to Asia!

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Air travellers asked to pay CO2 levy

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Air travellers asked to pay CO2 levy: "Airline passengers should be encouraged to make voluntary payments to offset the damage caused by carbon dioxide emissions from their flights, the government suggested yesterday."



Yeah, like that's really going to make a big difference: tax the fuel!

Planet Ark : Shell, PowerGen step up UK wind farm project plan

Planet Ark : Shell, PowerGen step up UK wind farm project plan: "n December, Shell and PowerGen first announced that their consortium - London Array Ltd - was planning to build a wind farm on the Thames Estuary that could ultimately supply up to a quarter of London's power."



25% of Londons power from a series of estuary wind farms? SOunds good. Let's hope that the possibilities of generation on the tops of tall buildings kicks in to make up some more without the transmision loss ...

Engineering God in a Petri Dish

Wired News: : "Keats' project asks some serious scientific questions -- and no small number of religious ones: If evolutionary theory is accurate, then God's genetic makeup should most resemble Earth's first life forms. Or, if creationists are right, then God's DNA is more like the life forms he created in his own image. Said another way: Is God more like blue-green algae or the fruit fly?"

I do wish that people who do this kind of thing would consult people with a modicum of theological nous. Though the kind of conceptualising of God implied in this seems to be increasingly common somehow. In this popular conceptuality God is, well, god; that is god is seen to be some kind of super being within this universe. In other words, this universe is the ultimate reality and god has to, therefore, fit into it*. Gone is the concept that God created it all, at the very least god is co-eternal with matter. It's no real surprise: neo-Paganism sees god as less ultimate than 'what is'; Terry Pratchett's novels portray deity in less than infinite and unbegun terms ... it's actually quite a normal view of g/G/od/de. BUt let's note it isn't Christian and if we don't defend God as creator then we are left with absurdities like this 'experiment'. Shades of the early Church.

[* note for traditional grammar pedants: yes this is a split infinitive. But I think that you should note how English actually works. The so-called infinitive in English does not really exist in that way. For example if a conversation-partner were to respond to that starred sentence they might say, "If the universe really were the ultimate reality then you're right about who or what fits into that world picture; and God has to." -note that the 'to' actually fits with the 'has' not with the following verb and that it is not at all okay to say, "...and God has.". Hence my ability to place 'therefore' between 'to' and 'fit']

Hydrogen car unveiled

Technology News Article | Reuters.com: "The company cautioned, however, that while the cars don't pollute, production of hydrogen as a fuel does entail pollution." That's mostly because this model is a combustion engine rather than fuel cell.

Spam on the phone

Once telephony is done over the internet then it becomes prone to the common 'net pestilences of spam, viruses, trojans and DoS attacks. Perhaps this prospect will wake up legislators and authorities to take seiously the mechanisms needed to really deal with it all.

Nanotechnology to Create Green Hydrogen

PhysOrg:

I can't decide about this. Good prognosis for cleaner power offset by unknown and possibly toxic effects of nanotech in environment .. jury's out?

Jimmy Carter fears repeat of election fiasco in Florida

Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 |: "Mr Carter said reforms recommended after the recount in Florida had still not been implemented 'because of inadequate funding or political disputes'."
So are we to see a reapeat of the current administration of the USA lecturing other nations on democracy when there is a lot to be desired at home? I can't help remembering seeing a chunk of a hearing with Donald Rumsfeld on Television recently where he was commenting that the Iraq elections might not be perfect but it was bettter than nothing. And I wondered whether he had another upcoming election in mind too ...

See how these Christians love one another

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Punch-up at tomb of Jesus: "Priests and worshippers hit one another at the doorway dividing Orthodox and Franciscans,"
This is almost iconic; not to mention ironic. I feel ashamed. After all, as one person is quoted as saying: "We are all Christians, and there is nothing to fight about," [said David Khoury, a Franciscan]. And doesn't it seem even more incongruous that it would be Franciscans involved? I remember learning about Athanasius's "bully-boy monks" in Church history but had hoped that we had realised how unChristlike it was; apparently not.

23 October NOT 6000 anniversary of creation

A little while back, in June, I blogged about the realisation that if Ussher had been right and creation took place on 23 October 4004 BC, then the 6000 anniversary was this year. What I didn't recall until my friend Gavin Wakefield [once a mathematician, now a missiologist and deputy warden at Cranmer Hall] pointed it out yesterday, was that the date is in effect a negative number so in fact this year would be the 6,008th year anniversary -which makes the idea of a service for it rather less exciting. We should have done it in 1996.

When I revisited Andrew's blog over at Tall Skinny Kiwi which was the original source of my info, I discovered that someone had already left a comment to that effect ... that'll teach me not to check the feedback more often! And Maggi, you told Andrew but not me, I'm disappointed.

Tunnel visionary

Guardian Unlimited | Arts features |:
This sounds fascinating, not least to me because it sounds so amenable to the vision of many alt.worship groups. In fact the whole thing sounds like something that would perhaps, with some renegotiation of content, make a really good Lenten project. It's a shame I won't be able to visit this exhibition which includes crawling around in tunnels and sitting on straw bales in order to see the exhibits.

Another interesting aspect is grought out by this quote from the article:
"One of the pleasures of the show is to watch other people negotiate the works. You can't tell them apart from the sculptures, and you get to meet interesting strangers crawling about in the tunnels. It all leads to a sense of camaraderie, surprise, and good humour."
The sense that by having people do something together that is taxing or not easy helps to build something of a sense of community.

Lots to think about here.

British firm finds the nuclear industry's 'holy grail'

Telegraph | News | British firm finds the nuclear industry's 'holy grail': "Jean McSorley, a nuclear energy specialist at Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, said that geomelting was not a solution to the problem of nuclear waste, but might be a step in the process of managing it."

Jesus walks - kanye west

This article put me in mind of a tee-shirt I saw in a boutique in Newcastle last week. It was one of those double layered things with a rough cut about it, canary yellow with a gothic-style crucifix prineted on it and some gothic lettered Latin which appeared, on closer inspection, to be the words from Matthew or Mark's account of Christ's baptism.

What is this about? Because it is not an isolated incident in the fashion/cultural industries at the moment, as the referenced article points out. I think that there is a big clue in the style: it's Gothic, it seems to connote things like, Van Helsing, Buffy and other borderline horror/magic/occult programmes and films. I would suggest, then, that our reading of this needs to start with that context. -A battle between good and evil in which the Crucifix is a talisman of protection or an amulet of power. It is also resonant with the themes of death and sexuality [like Madonna said once; the crucifix has a naked man on it] which is heavy in Gothic-related cultural artefacts.

The good thing about this, from a Christian point of view is that the idea of good and evil is alive and that a major Christian symbol is seen as powerful in that nexus. The challenge is that the conceptualising of good and evil is pretty shallow: it is hard to see why one is to be preferred over the other sometimes; it's kind of dualist. Yet for all that it cannot entirely go with the dualist idea since somehow at rock bottom some things just are good: friendship and love, pleasure not pain.

The other difficulty with a lot of contemporary thinking/sentimentalising about good and evil is that it is first defined in relation to the individual and power is seen as something we use for good or for ill.

The divine/spiritual is impersonal and even divine power is something that is controlled by individuals, there is no real concept that God might have a personal stake or that we migh need to fall in with God's ideas; rather 'the force' [to borrow language from another mythos for a moment] is neutral, to be bent to our agendas. In this way, tacitly, good and evil tend to be seen as human constructions, and therefore somewhat realtive [!].

Our challenge is to articulate a view of good and evil that makes sense of the 'just is' goodness of friendship, love etc and roots it in the 'just is' goodness of personhood which is so intimately related to them. What we need to strive for is presentation of a Christian viewpoint whereby thinking of good and evil aside from a personal God seems implausible or at least strange. I suggest that we need to be able to say that creation is good and that evil is an aberration parasitic upon the good [cf CS Lewis]. The intuition of Creation-cetntred spirituality is right at this point; we need to start with celebration of what is recognised as good. What is also needed though, is to be able to articulate an account of goodness that doesn't elide or minimalise evil in a way that too much creation-centred spirituality and theology seems to [I couldn't ever see how it would make sense in inner-city Bradford, for example].

I think we need to pay attention to the Gothic strand in contemporary popular culture: we can learn much about what we need to put over and what themes are most resonant.

Could we have a fatwa with that?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Muslim leaders appeal to captors: "'It is un-Islamic to ask someone to bear the sins of another,' he said. 'Whatever mistakes, errors, sins or crimes the British committed, we don't believe a British national should be held responsible. Mr Bigley is a victim as much as civilians in Falluja are victims.'"

It is realy good to see and hear of prominent Muslims doing this. Picking up something from a few days ago, though, how about a few fatwas? That would make it absolutely clear that we are dealing with a mianstream opinion. If Salman Rushdie could be fatwa'd then why not these people?

Then, on another tack, is the interesting link to Christian concerns: bearing the sins of another: I am developing in my own thinking a way of thinking about atonement that re-frames the idea of Jesus bearing our sins. It has to be said that, outside of the circles where the evangelical/catholic view of sin-bearing seesm to make sense, it makes very little sense to many; it even seems unjust and a recipe for licence [which St.Paul seems to admit]. We desperately need to reframe atonemtn but not going the way of eliminating the connection with the traditional language of, eg, the Agnus Dei and even scripture itself. We need to be able to do this also, clearly, to be able to commend Christian perspectives to Muslims.

Been away for the weekend

If you were wondering why I'd gone quiet -it's cos I was here: Sneaton Castle [home of the Order of the Holy Paraclete] on a parish weekend with our old church in Bradford. When I've got the photos developed I will post up some of the nicer ones. The chapel is a favourite church space of mine and it has some rather fine pieces of artwork as part of the decor.

During the Sunday Eucharist one the the people there shared a picture he had had impressed on him listening to Radio 4 [BBC as a channel for God's voice -whatever next?] which I found particularly helpful in our circumstances. It was from a film and a book about people who had been stranded after an aircraft crash [forget the title now], one of whom had found himslef down a cravasse and decided that since he couldn't go up he might as well try going down further into the confined space. Eventually this led to a wider, more open space. Since I have felt lately that I have been forced by life's circumstances into a position where there is little wiggle room for me the picture seemed very appropriate; the sense of being dropped into a confined space and of finding that as I tried to move on it became even tighter. So I am hoping that, and felt that perhaps God was saying to me through it, that there is more open space ahead, press on. Good news.

China facing environment 'crisis'

Democrats Abroad Japan: "Pan Yue, deputy head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said the problems now threatened economic performance. He said China's industrial development was unsustainable, because its resources could not cope. Environmental problems like pollution, acid rain and contaminated rivers have only now become a key policy issue. Mr Pan said that China could no longer afford to follow the West's resources-hungry model of development and it should encourage its citizens to avoid adopting the developed world's consumer habits...'"

Retailer Gets Out the Green Votes

Wired News: Retailer Gets Out the Green Votes

Interesting: retailers recognising that their long-term business interests are tied up in envirnmental protection -or that their short-term sales are tied up in the predilictions of their typical consumers? I hope it's the former and that we see more and more wkaing up to their long-term interests.

Leaarning is good

EducationGuardian.co.uk | higher news | Howells warns of merciless university market:
It's good to read of a governement minister saying this:
"'We've become very utilitarian in the department for education. I'm in a lucky position of having returned after six or seven years.
'Learning for learning's sake is something we should criticise very warily. People want to learn simply because learning is wonderful and it's the second best thing I know in the world.'"

Question is; will it make any difference? Learning is at the heart of human being: we learn as we live and live as we learn. Things like therapy and life coaching and management are all about learning. Time to value it for itself not just instrumentally.

SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | 'Eat local' plan to tackle obesity

SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | 'Eat local' plan to tackle obesity: "Lady Miller pointed the finger at the Conservative party for the poor diets in today's schools which lead to poor concentration and hyperactivity, after the former government 'cut school dinners, closed school kitchens and sacked school cooks', she said.

'At a single stroke they turned a generation away from eating a midday meal prepared with prime ingredients into a generation who ate snack food on the run. Vending machines filled the hunger gaps that inevitably appeared and children's moods swung on sugar highs and hunger lows.'

Much as I love exposing the bads of the previous conservative administration I couldn't help wondering whether this hadn't drifted into scapegoating? Don't consumers themselves have some responsibility? Though education by actually having the meals there and being eaten must also count for something

"

A challenge to our well-read-ness

Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Language barrier
I found this a challenge: loving the enemy implies effort at understanding 'them'. Since my geopolitical situation defines for me who the enemy currently are [not an assessment I would necessarily agree with otherwise] then my task is clearer. So in the light of this article I'm thinking that I should try to get to know better Arabic literature and to understand the culture it presupposes better ... not sure how to start, and indeed I find that my appetite for the idea is not yet stimulated enough, but ... anyone else for a go?

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | British Energy seeks stock exchange delisting

British Energy seeks stock exchange delisting: "Brussels has approved the package on condition that any state aid is used exclusively to fund the decommissioning of BE's nuclear power stations."



The thing is, despite some prominent voices saying nuclear is part of the anser, it's expensive, it couldn't bear its externalities and it could not get up and running in time. It simply isn't a viable option ...

willzhead: How Does God Speak?

willzhead: How Does God Speak?



Siple but a subject that goes to the heart of things; some interesting things said here about how people hear God: other people seem too be important; Christian community mediates God's direction/directing. And there's a cheer for circumstances. Overall, the blog and the feedback give a nice feel for the interplay of different things and the need for us to learn attentiveness, perhaps together.

Loadsa links to practical green householding

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Do try this at home

Eg.

f you're thinking about installing a renewable energy source for your home investigate what grants you could be entitled to. The government's Clear Skies initiative (www.clear-skies.org, tel: 08702 430 930) aims to help householders and communities "realise the benefits of renewable energy by providing grants and access to sources of advice". Householders can obtain grants of between £500 and £5,000, depending on what technology they install. And it's not just limited to solar panels and wind turbines. Wood-fuelled boiler systems (not log-burning stoves or Agas), for example, which typically cost £4,500 for a 15kWth system, can qualify for a £1,500 grant. Hydro turbines and ground-source heat pumps also qualify for grants.

Planet Ark : Canada to use PetroCan money for green technology

Planet Ark : Canada to use PetroCan money for green technology: "The Canadian government will devote some of the proceeds from its sale of its 19 percent stake in oil company Petro-Canada (PCA.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) to develop environmental technologies"

Planet Ark : Canada to use PetroCan money for green technology

Planet Ark : Canada to use PetroCan money for green technology: "The Canadian government will devote some of the proceeds from its sale of its 19 percent stake in oil company Petro-Canada (PCA.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) to develop environmental technologies"

Dilemma for wind farm critic

BBC NEWS | Wales |

Here's an interessting tale of support and opposition for wind farming. In Wales.

Britons 'in favour of wind farms'

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | The shame is that the objections to this are given plenty of space to put their arguments but the counter case [for wind turbines] is not given space. But you dear reader can click on the link in the right-hand column of htis page and see for yourselves.

Blair's missing the point on financing renewables: fossil volatility costs more

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian |: "Renewable and low-carbon energy are not just the long-term solutions to climate change. They are indispensable today if we are to cushion the British economy against volatile oil and gas prices and the impending peak in world oil production - not least the dwindling reserves in the North Sea."

What I've been saying for some time; buit seeing it in 'papers makes me happy. Let's hpe the message gets heard

Do try this at home

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian |: "energy-saving tips, information about what energy grants are available and the opportunity to complete a free DIY Home Energy "

Canada to use PetroCan money for green technology

Planet Ark : Canada to use PetroCan money for green technology: "The Canadian government will devote some of the proceeds from its sale of its 19 percent stake in oil company Petro-Canada (PCA.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) to develop environmental technologies"

hate speech and violence

SojoMail
Maggi Dawn has been blogging lately about bullying violence etc, and I found a reference twice today to a speech/sermon by Jimmy Swaggart on the topic of homosexual people. Dave Batstone's refelction led him to mull over reactions by some badly taught Christians and unChristlike attitudes they [we] might have in relation to disagreements which take contempt to the nth degree. He writes: "...this time I did write back a short note asking how he, in turn, could call himself a Christian and use such profane, violent words toward another human being. His e-mail back to me was revealing, albeit shocking: "I can write to you as I like, for you are not a human being. You have forfeited that right; you are nothing but pond scum."
"That's the theological loophole for what passes as Christian morality these days. Simply demonstrate why the other person, or race of people, has forfeited their status as a human being, and you can do with them what you will. By the way, that is the same theological loophole used by the church in Latin America to justify the massacre of millions of native Americans during the Conquest; they were not deemed human beings"

Literally dehumanising; the stock in trade of bullies and military might everywehere and everywhen. What would Jesus do?

Rising call by clerics for jihad

Religion News Blog : I think that it's quite important that we understand what motivates those who make themselves our opponents and even enemies. We are called to love our enemies and the first step is understanding. This article helps in that.

Talking inthe previous blog about Muslims setting aiside or not the Prophet's example of hostage taking and execution; what about Christians setting aside the Dominical command to love enemies? What an intersting juxtaposition, eh? If AL Qaida are our enemy, how do we love them? I can't see homicidal violence being loving ... [stir, stir...]

Automakers Give Biodiesel a Boost

Wired News: A hopeful kind of article which gives some insight into the kinds of issues that need to be sorted in order for alternative fuels to become more commonplace. In this case the need for good infrastructure and for engines to be okay with the stuff.

Iraq killers 'utterly un-Islamic'

BBC NEWS | England | Merseyside | Hmm I wonder, and I wonder what the Muslim leadership is thinking: Sunni Muslims set great store by the example and practice of Muhammed -sometimes in ways very similar to Christ for Christians. Muhammed's practice is seen as authoritative as a guide too conduct and attitudes. So it is worrying in the present climate to read:
"A.Guillaume's translation (OUP, 1955, p. 464) of the early Islamic historian Ibn Hisham titled 'The Life of Muhammad' where it says in the section on the Raid on the Banu Qurayza:
"Then they surrendered, and the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches....There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900. As they were taken out in batches to the apostle they asked Ka'b what he thought would be done with them. He replied, 'Will you never understand? Don't you see that the summoner never stops and those who are taken away do not return? By Allah it is death!' This went on until the apostle had made an end to them." "
Unfortunately -as this quote shows- it is arguable that the actions of these hostage takers is very Islamic indeed. I would like it to be otherwise and, as I say, I wonder what the reasoning is and how this hadith/sunna is set aside.

video downloads

video downloads Jonny Baker draws attention to this and I would add that usually Visions video is good stuff and is tried and tested in worship. I have animated gif's I use in slide projections for worship that are sourced from Visions and they are among the best in my collection. So enjoy!

In 1683 Turkey was the invader. In 2004 much of Europe still sees it that way

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | . In 2004 much of Europe still sees it that wayMany of you who come here often will have noticed that I have a two-way attitude on Islam; on the one hand I recognise that there are a lot of Muslims who are reasoanble, and whose expression and articulation and uinderstanding of their faith is something of beauty and on the other hand I fear that in the 'title deeds' of Islam and some mainstream strands of interpretation there are some things that make for a fearful prospect. I am not uncritical either of my own Christian background and recognise that some things are mirror images.

I'll lay my cards on thetable with Turkey in the EU; my first reaction was of hopei it wouldn't happen: when I asked myself why it seemed to come down to a sense of a different civilisational root and of greater alien-ness [and this sense that most of Turkey isn't in Europe anyway]. And I think some of the alienness is about the Islamic thing. However, I have thought better of it: it's a secular nation [like France] with a particular religious heritage [again like France], it bans the hijab in public education [like France] ... But seriously: the EU should be about meeting difference with community and I think that it would be good for the peace of the world if Turkey and the EU could make a go of it. I would hope that the engagment of Europe with Islam in a national form and of TUrkey with the secular and religious character of the rest of Europe could bring about something of a dialogue of civilisations that is much needed. I'm not sure, at the end of the day, that the religious difference in social and political terms is so much greater than those that are already to be found in Europe. But I would invite historians and political scientists to comment.

Lectionary for OE or PDA

Thanks to Tom Allen aka "Big Bulky Anglican" [gotta love that moniker] for alerting those of us subscribed to the Bradford Diocesan 'Off the Record' list to this potentially useful resource.

Global Rich List

Global Rich List: "You are in the top 10.4% richest people in the world.
There are 5,375,963,777 people poorer than you."
And my income is a bit meagre: actually I put in the family income since mine just now is minuscule by comparison -I'm a kept man just at the moment. Still it puts our plight into perspective. Do you dare take the test: just put your income [a variety of currencies accepted: £$Euro...] and see where you come on the global scale of wealth and poverty.

Thanks to Sarah Laughed for the link.

Greenbelt von ferne

Life-Navigator: Greenbelt von ferne Greenbelt on the German radar.

Poisonous detritus of the electronic revolution

FYI

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Poisonous detritus of the electronic revolution: "What's in a typical 27kg (60lb) desktop computer



Electrical and electronic equipment uses a multitude of components that contain carcinogens such as lead and arsenic, plus precious metals such as copper and gold. The recycling and disposal of such components is lucrative but poses serious health risks and environmental dangers

Plastics - 6.26kg

Lead - 1.72kg

Silica - 6.8kg

Aluminium - 3.86kg

Iron - 5.58kg

Copper - 1.91kg

Nickel - 0.23kg

Zinc - 0.6kg

Tin - 0.27kg



Also present are trace amounts of manganese, arsenic, mercury, indium, niobium, yttrium, titanium, cobalt, chromium, cadmium, selenium, beryllium, gold, tantalum, vanadium, europium, and silver."

Havens that have become a tax on the world's poor

Guardian Unlimited Money | News | : "This month the Tax Justice Network, which was formed last year by tax experts and economists worried about the trend, launched an international secretariat in London. It will work with the UN and other international bodies to reverse the practice of hiding money from governments worldwide."

Tax justice network? Never heard of 'em but what a good idea -especially when you see how much money is involved and realise what could be done with it. Kleptocracy calls for an international response, surely?
If you are concerned about international development you need to read this article.

There is no reason to have a computer in [your] home

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Questionable Quotes (Ken Olsen) A salutary reminder, given what I've just blogged, not to be too sure of predictions of the future [though I would still invest money in what I blogged last -if I had it].

Reaping From the Wild Wind

Wired News: : "New modeling software means wind-farm developers no longer have to wait a year to find out the wind-energy potential of their property, .... Wind-farm developers need accurate information because a slight difference in average wind speed greatly affects energy potential, according to data from the American Wind Energy Association. For example, an increase in wind speed from 12 to 18 miles per hour yields more than three times the wind energy."



Nuff sed?

Google plan to give M$ a run for their money [?]

Slashdot put me on to this. Apparently -based on who they've been hiring lately- this looks like a possibility. On it's own that wouldn't be enough but put it together with this and you get somewhere:
"The idea is that companies or consumers could buy a machine that costs only about $200, or less, but that has very little hard drive space and almost no software. Instead, users would access a network through a browser and access all their programs and data there.
The concept floundered, but programmers note that Google could easily pick up the ball. Already, its Gmail free e-mail system gives users 100 megabytes of storage space on a remote network — providing consumers a virtual hard drive."

It makes sense to me: once you have a broadband connection and a Google account what more do you need for data storage? I have a special Gmail account set up to handle my writing and research so that wherever I am I can access my materials and add or edit without relying on remembering to bring my USB memory thingy [even if the machines have a usuable slot which given security issues many don't]. Someone did try this a few years back but the lack of speed on the connections and the dial-up thing kept it from big uptake [remember those "net PC'S"?] Certainly I'm thinking in terms of linuxing a spare old laptop and using it as a kind of net PC. The future beckons and it is a world where you have access to your data almost anywhere because people like Google store it for you. Microsoft should be scared because that's a world where the operating system ain't so important and free will do nicely. Time to change business model?

Wastewater = energy source?

PhysOrg: Wastewater may be a valuable energy source: "research revealed that the wastewater contained enough organic material to potentially produce 113 megawatts of electricity or close to 990 million kilowatt hours a year. "



Sounds almost too good to be true, but actually once we start heading down the bio-mimicry route of reuse and recylce and looking at all the angles. However there comes a point in a post -oil world when such things make economic as well as ecological sense.

nano tech solar cells

PhysOrg: Nanotechnology may give plastic solar cells a boost: "RIT researchers, led by Ryne Raffaelle, professor of physics and microsystems engineering and director of the NanoPower Research Laboratories, hope to develop an improved polymer solar cell using nanomaterial additives. Raffaelle and his team will use a thin polymer film that can be rolled out in sheets. The film will contain nanoscale pieces of semiconductor material and single-walled carbon nanotubes to maximize energy conversion. "



This story is being hyped; the headlines make it sound like it's done; the detail is that funding has been granted and they're hopeful of results -bendy sheets of plastic with semiconducter properties and cheap to produce.

Mosque teacher found guilty of assault after hitting pupil with stick

EducationGuardian.co.uk | News crumb | Mosque teacher found guilty of assault after hitting pupil with stick: "'He hit me on one of my arms, then he poked me in the chest with the stick and pushed me down,' the boy said. 'It was very hard - it winded me. He told me: 'I hit you for your own benefit. Take it like a man.'"

Just been reflecting on Maggi Dawn's highlighting of the issue of bullying and how it affects and is affected by systemic issues [ie how we run organisations etc] only to see this article flagged up on Bloglines. I have heard that this boy's experience is not unusual at Madrassas [I have a suspicion that some part of the Qur'an or Hadith can be taken to encourage it]. It kind of goes to illustrate further though the way that through mimesis a systemic issue can develop. I suspect that if this guy administered corporal punishment [as alleged] it was more because that was his experience and only secondarily becuse religious texts might have been used to justify it. However, the mimesis won#t be questioned unless the religious justification [or any other ideological justifuication] is effectively challenged. This is systematised bullying and it is little wonder it at least sometimes produces people willing to do likewise.

Building a new Briton

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports An interesting article that attempts to peak into the future to think about what will affect our lives over the next 15 years and how that may affect our national character based on what already seems to be the perceptions and actualities. Nice piece of futuring.

Gattacca is nearly here

Wired News: Quick Read on Your Genetics If you saw
the film Gattaca and thought that the routine genetic testing depicted there was too unlikely, think again. Though the comments in this article are all about the good that routine and easy genetic testic could bring, we should remember the Gattaca story and the temptations that eugenics brings to the powerful.

China's Blurred Horizon

(washingtonpost.com) To log in, use the username "getinfree" and the isp "phonecoop.coop", password is "letmein".



The article is looking at climate change in China: "the country is now home to the world's worst environmental problems, extending far beyond the polluted air. And it is totally unprepared to combat them."



The effects are truly horrific to read. There is some hope; "an organized environmental movement is already developing, providing a structure to some of this anger. While Beijing has cracked down hard on evangelical churches, Falun Gong, the China Democracy Party and unofficial labor unions because it views these groups as explicitly political, it has allowed green organizations to flourish, though most environmental groups remain small."

Needs-met congregations and professional clergy

A quote from Stanley Hauerwas: "What we call “church” is too often a gathering of strangers who see the church as yet another “helping institution” to gratify further their individual desires. One of the reasons some church members are so mean-spirited with their pastor, particularly when the pastor urges them to look at God, is that they feel deceived by such pastoral invitations to look beyond themselves. They have come to church for “strokes,” to have their personal needs met. What we call church is often a conspiracy of cordiality."

Just linking this to my earlier thoughts about professionalism and ministry. Perhaps the reason why there is this tension between professionalism and warm human friendliness is precisely because we dealing with two-faced institutions: on the one hand we preach community: commitment to one another in Christ; on the other we are simply conspiring to be cordial and not to build community at all. So the priest/pastor/minister is caught between the two worlds and liable to be criticised from whichever point of view happens to suit at the time. Community builiding is obviously the much misunderstood dimension to pastoral ministry.

Have you run out of energy?

Have you run out of energy?: "Welcome to life under Domestic Tradable Quotas, or DTQs. With DTQs, every adult in the UK would have an equal number of units and would be able to choose how they spend those units. If they are high users they would be able to buy any available surplus units from low users. "



There was me thinking, cynically, that this idea would no way get anywhere near government to discover it's had a little parliamentary outing already.



My only issue with it is how it would be administered and whether it would lead to identity cards and/or other civil liberties issues.

UK exports recycling materials!

It's hard to beleive though the economics under our present system of underpriced oil [because externalitites are not included in the price] give it credance: yes we're exporting recyclable waste to Chine. China are resource hungry and have lots of cheap labour and with fule relatively cheap it's actually cheaper to do it this way. So it really is starting to pay to recycle; that's the good news bit of this. That it will cost even more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the downside not to mention that the Chinese are undercutting local recyclers. If the Chines had to pay the externalities of the fuel it would be better for local recyclers becasue their externalities would be lower... FoE reckon expanding our own industry would also be a solution as it would bring unit costs down.

Ethix of a blogger

On SlashDot I found this: apparently it's been a bit of a cult hit as a blog. If you folow up the reactions on salshdot you'll realise that there are some interesting ethical issues also. Perhaps that's the point -me: I strongly suspect that it's a put up job; these pix aren't objets trouves, they are the pictures of the blogger.

If not then all the ethical arguments about copyright apply and more importantly: 'do as you woulod be done by' makes this a well dodgy thing to do. But is it art?

The File Sharing Report

Nuclear Elephant:: "Because of the vast selection of media available to file-sharers, many are finding themselves exploring new music, movies, and even software they would not have normally considered in their purchases. There is demand, and demand creates market. "

Very interesting report suggesting that new ways of marketting and responding are needed, not litigation. Piracy is real; yes but the real problem is failure to listen to consumers. Read it and think: "paradigm shift".

Old computers good as new in Linux labs

The Honolulu Advertiser - Hawaii.: "Although the open-source programs are free, technical support is not, Moriyama pointed out, so the DOE would have to pay if there were problems with the software. 'There's actually no incentive for us to do it,' he said."

What this doesn't tell you of course is that when you ring technical support for proprietary software you get people from who knows where in the world who you can't understand who you are unsure whether they understand you. Their task is to take so many calls an hour and so they may not be that helpful, and in any case it's really hard to do a lot of stuff on a graphical interface verbally [I know I have to say to people I help with computing; "let me have a look 'cos I don't process this stuff in the verbal bit of my mind"]. So much so that most of us end up asking a friend to come in and so it or call in some local computer repair bod who charges us £50 call-out plus ... So you may as well get in touch with the linux people who are wll knowon for being community minded and helpful. DOes that negate the issue?

Anyway take note if you ever have a budget and want to do basic computing with people; linux save you money [$3k vs $30k? -you could put $10 in tha bank for support and still come out way ahead and some linux distros will give you the support if you buy from them -Suse, Red Hat for two].

How easy is it; well I'm sitting in front of a linux running machine now and most of my skills honed using M$Windoze are perfectly transferable; there's even some nice extras like having four [or I could vary the number] desktops available to me for different kinds of work. I have an internet desktop, a writing desktop, a file and other stuff desktop and one for games ... all accessible at the click of a mouse without cluttering my workspace or task bars.

The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus

The A BuzzFlash Reader Commentary


Hmmm; this is quite a wicked [middle and new senses of the word] piece of work with a brilliant sting in the tail. Thanks to Alan at The Ooze blog for putting us onto it.

True Cost Economics

Adbusters You may have picked up the hints invarious blogs that a big chunk of my political thinking is heavily influenced by this idea of true cost economics. What this is is the simple idea that what we buy should reflect the true costs of producing it. This means including in the price all those things that truly belong to it but are at present, through the political system or other means are not represented in the price. Huh? Well, take that kiwi fruit you bought the other day. It's price does not reflect the true costs of transport because they did not reflect the proportional costs to the environment [and how we clean up or mitigate the efects of global warming] or the on-costs of rehoming 100 million people adversely affected by climate change and dealing with huge migrations or the health costs of my children and grandchildren from the same. If we can find mechanisms to include those costs in the price then you and I as consumers can make better choices, simplified into prices, about how we deal with the planet and our own material enhancement.


This AdBusters site has a number of pages exploring the implications and possible ways forward. Related is a site which explores the growing idea of 'Post Autistic Economics'. Autistic economics being what we've been taught over the last 50 years or more [I certainly was at A level]: narrowly focused on rather unreal exercises. Economics is arguably flawed as a guide to real world economics since most of the prognostications are based on flawed prinicple: perfect competition [in reality we have oligopolies etc]; perfect information [in reality most consumers have little idea of what the choices are or inclination to research them or go to where the best bargains are]; maximised utility [in reality most of us make do and even act altruistically at times]. Also classical economics tends to ignore reflexivity and the effects that systems analysis would bring to the debate.

And we let these people run our banks and economies....

Anti capitalism isn't about socialisim [necessarily] but about truthful economics and not letting people get away with making themselves rich by robbing future generations of their climate and livelihoods. but we need to find decentralised mechanisms to do that. True cost, post-autistic, economics aims to do that.

Saving Energy Without Derision

Slashdot |

Useful link to a document [you may have to email the author to ask for a copy personally but don't let that put you off -it's good stuff] about how to save energy in practical and low cost ways.

10%

National Association of Record Industry Professionals [narip.com]: "the NARIP-supplied 'iTunes Artist-Producer Royalty Calculation' sheet was fascinating because it answers the question all artists on iTunes keep asking: 'How much of a 99-cent download do I get to keep?' While indie artists do better, for major label artists, Apple collects 34 cents, the label keeps 55 cents, and the artist gets a dime.

And I can't help wondering whether the fair trade priciples shouldn't apply in the recording industry too....

Ah yes, a dime. Some things never change.
"

Laptop stands -whatever next?

Kevin Kelly -- Cool Tools I can see this one coming in as a winner -given it's resemblance to a music stand it even opens the possibility of using the laptop for music. I've just seen my daughter compose music on beautifully presented staves on her laptop and I'm thinking that it would be easier for musicians to turn the pages ....

Of course the next issue is how long laptops will continue to exist in a form to make this necessary or profitable?

How M$ plans to disable other OSs

PBS |. This is a warning of a potential anticompetitive practice which -given the history cited- sounds quite likely. My question is what can we do about it? Linux and MAc OS are threatened byt this kind of move and I cry "foul!"

African Americans Have More Negative View of Islam than Whites

Muslim WakeUp! MWU! Blog: The site that this references is one on my blogroll because I find it interesting to find an articulate and progressive Muslim voice. Like the author, Ahmed Nassef, I was surprised to discover that black African-Americans have a more negative view of Islam than Euro-Americans [well, a higher proportion of 'negative impressions']. There are a few suggestions as to why, and indeed I would be interested. But I do just wonder whether it may be that the proportion of Evangelical Christians may be higher in that community and thus the figure is mainly explained by the higher antipathy figures from regular-churchgoing Evangelicals?

Of course an awareness that it was Muslim rulers selling captives to the slave trade 300 years ago, the genocidal politics of Arab Muslim government in Sudan or Muhammed's derogatory comments about black people ["Raisin heads"] may or may not figure ...

Where are the Fatwas Against bin Laden?

Religion News Blog : Former Kuwaiti Information Minister: George Carey came in for some stick for saying that Muslim leaders had been muted in their protests against the twin towers attack and Al Qa'ida. People like Andre Brown of the Church Times and others pointed out that Muslims had indeed condemened them. Some Muslims pointed out that such condemnations were not reported prominently if at all. All fair enough.

Except that to really make the thing convincing this prominent [?] Muslim has put his finger on a real sticking point: if these actions are unIslamic, where are the fatwas? Given that lying is considered okay in certain diploimatic situations for the safety or esteem of Islam, a fatwa or several would really be convincing.

The rumour mill has it...

As many of you will know, the Archbishop of York is retiring as AB ofY and becoming a parish priest in Ilkley, in the diocese of Bradford [there goes his increased pension -but good on him!]. It seems likely that my offer to do the job for the same cost as being a parish priest has fallen on deaf ears [no surprise there really ;-) ]. So the rumours are ... that Tom Wright is in the ring and indeed going to do it and that James Jones, currently Bp of Liverpool is going to replace him as Bp of Durham. My sources are as yet untested for accuracy but seem pretty confident but they're only as good as their sources and I don't know about those.

Interesting thing about this is that Tom Wright only consented to be Bp of Durham provided he had one day a week to write and research. Will the same be true if he goes to York? I hope so; we need the example of making priority for the important and focussing on what we are called to do rather than taking our cue always from what others always expect of us.

Finally, U.S. facing up to global warming

(HamptonRoads.com/Pilot Online) The headline says it all but it's nice to have evidence that the US is finally getting the message in important circles.

Rowan Williams at Al Azhar

: "The Archbishop of Canterbury rebutted one of the major Muslim misunderstandings of Christianity, that Christians worship three Gods, in his lecture at al-Azhar in Egypt, one of the main centres of Islamic learning. "
There appears to be a lot of good stuff said in this. Of course the Muslim community has a problem in hearing this particular thing; the Qur'an makes the claim that Christians worship three gods; Father, Son and virgin Mary. So they may not entirely believe us when we claim to worship the unity and that the nature of the trinity is conceived of somewhat differently. To my mind it must surely put a major question mark against the divine origin of at least that bit of the Qur'an; if it can't get it right about what Christians believe ...

Three cheers to Rawan also for saying this: “God is a loving God, as we all agree; but, says the Christian, God does not love simply because he decides to love. He is always, eternally, loving. His very nature, his definition is love,” And of course that is implicitly indicating a more-than-one-ness about Godhead: non-necessary/uncontingent love must be self-sustaining and yet must also have subject and object ... Perhaps one reason Islam doesn't call God 'love' is precisely an intuition that this naming of God would undermine their conception of tawhid [oneness/unity]?

Welcome to Ubuntu Linux

Regular readers will know that I've gone linux. Well, I came across this distro [that's a distribution -a kind of 'edition' of linux] which seems to have some interesting features; easy to use, free CD's [if you get there quickly] and a philosophy that quotes Desmond Tutu:
"A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole." [Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from ''No Future Without Forgiveness''] 'Ubuntu' was chosen to sum up the spirit of the distro. If you want to experiment it'll partition your disk for you [just make sure you defrag windows first] so that you can keep windows as your security blanket. I've ordered three disks so that I can give two away to friends. I love the very full screen shots which show you what it looks like to install and what the chief features of the desktop environment are. The proper release is in October this year.

Christian non-Green views

Did you see that party political broadcast on behalf of the green party the other night?’ I said I thought I had. ‘Because the interesting thing about it was that he asked everybody to believe, to be silent for a while, and let the spirit speak. Now if you’re not inviting Jesus to come into you that night, someone else will. These people are doing the Devil’s work



I'd forgotten that this mindset would read it that way; it's a real doozy to get past. Any ideas how to shimmy past it and score a try for the environment?

Are Clergy Professionals?

Storyteller's World: Tony writes, "most of all, the work we do is all about people. But those people are very rarely 'clients' in the way that the people dealt with by professional therapists, counsellors etc. are. They are friends, family, brothers and sisters in Christ; and yes, of course they are often also 'perishers', as a delightful Mrs Malaprop in a former parish used to describe my parishioners. ("Of course, you have to worry about all your perishers, don't you, vicar?")"

Over the years, I've mused over this. The church is meant to be about a living, loving community of brothers-and-sisters-in-Christ; this hardly invites the idea that the leader is a professional [which would make parishioners 'clients'] and yet clearly professional standards in care, administration, confidentiality etc etc are required. Members of [other ?] caring professions may live a good way away from their places of work, clergy often do not and often live a family life somewhat in goldfish-bowl conditions [and personality-wise most clergy are ill-suited to that, btw]. They live as members of one or part of the communities they "serve". In fact some of the terms of service for CofE clergy definitely cross over the line of professionalism; living in close proximity and even socialising with 'clients' is not perhaps maintaining a professional distance.

Part of the problem, it seems to me, is that the role of clergy has essentially grown out of the roles of community leader, soul-friend, and a kind of older family member; all very personal and based on bonds of love and service. Other professions seek to offer care but not such personal involvement [which can lead to bad diagnoses or favouritism or whatever else]. We clergy are trapped then in a clash of expectations; we are to be professional but we are to be friends. We need not to be partisan but we need to care for each; we are required to be 'human' but not in certain ways. So we may be expected to act as a friend might except when it suits our 'client' to have us more distant, but if we misread either way we will be slagged off for being over-chummy or too cold. neither model will do and yet both must be followed.

I sometimes wonder whether it is such a good idea to have clergy in the kind of way that the western world has seen hitherto. Is the institutionalisation and professionalisation of the role actually becoming a hindrance in mission and real pastoral care? I exagerrate, I suspect. But there is a little niggle for me that says that perhaps the foundations are shakier than we think.

My main calls to ordained ministry were to teaching and preaching and administration of particularly sacramental worship. Pastoral care was not really the foremost [though I'm told I'm good at it, on the whole]. On the other hand some people are clearly pastoral foremost and have less love for the teaching or proclamation or presidential side of things. Much of the tension I have tried to name above seems to revolve around the pastoral dimension which is the side that has seen most growth in secular wannabes [counsellors, social workers, doctors to some extent and so on]. Is there a fragmentation going on and is it healthy if so?

Perhaps, as I once said to a parishioner where we were trying to define what our relationship was, we are 'professional friends' -but that seems to have connotations of insincerity which may not at all be the case or even true. To be called to befriend and to answer that call as wholeheartedly as possible, to learn to give respect and to develop empathy with those who come across our path. To try to see things their way while not necessarily agreeing, to learn the hard art of speaking the truth in love are all borne out of both friendship and professionalism. Perhaps it is here that a synergy of roles resides?

TV hunt for parish priest

Telegraph | News |I think that my reaction to this was to cringe inwardly: it seems too much like asking the cameras in on to something that is too personal. I think that my difficulty with it is that it is so likely to be reflexive; the act of observation will change the things observed. So in a way it's unlikely to help. Now I'm no mediaphobe; I like the principle that the church should be telegenic and using the media well for internal communications and external. But somehow this feels all wrong. Maybe I'm wrong and it'll turn out to be a huge success and be an inspiration and help to thousands of those who love God and keep His commandments, but ... I don't know.

I'll not be applying.

Twist a Pen, Open a Lock

Wired News: As someone who recently bought a bike and got security conscious about it this is worrying; and since I know some of my readers are in biking territory ... It's an interesting reflection with David and Goliath resonances though. The article also mentions a vulnerability in lap top security locks -so that'll have you rushing to check it out.

Step Toward Universal Computing

Wired News: Is this the end of proprietary OS's? Mac software on linux on XP ... ?

Spinach May Soon Power Mobile Devices

PhysOrg:

This could be a major contribution to a cleaner less power-hungry world. It also has the potential to be a major factor in helping communitties in developing nations to take advantage of the power of computing without having to be onthe grid. Skip the industrial revolution.

Journeying in faith

A review ofa book I've just read on people who remain Christian but leave the Church ... a lot I recognise , a lot, by implication, for the institutional churches to learn from.

mobile phone prayers

ArKaos : Interactive Visual Technologies Two or three years ago, Adrian Riley and I were planning some worship and thought that it's be good if we could only find a simple way to disply pryaers that people had texted on their mobile phones. Of course it was beyond us at the time but [thanks to tall skinny Kiwi for spotting this] now it can be done ...

Finding Truth on the Internet

Wired News: A little while back I blogged about truth in a world of easier faking. The issues of trusted sources in such a world grows and this article points up one site which is trying to address that. Perhaps one to bookmark?

Freedom Tower Will Be Green Giant

Wired News: t: "The 'skin' of the building will use materials that allow in the maximum amount of sunlight while providing insulation, Battle said. The lobby and other areas of the building are designed to use natural ventilation that reduces the need for electricity, according to Battle."

So that answers my question when I blogged on this a few months back about what else, if anything, was to be done to make the thing greener. In fact, it sounds like quite a good design. Hurrah!

Godthreads

emergesque

It seemed to me that what is called here "Godthreads" are precisely the kind of thing that I, wearing a soul-befriending hat, am on the look-out for in the lives of seekers. The interesting thing is first to note the Godthreads [things like journalling or just regular times of recollection like the Examen] and over time to build up a profile of how and when they tend to occur for you. Then the thing may be to assume that this is a kind of preferences indicator which can be used to reframe your spiritual disciplines to maximise your normal inputs. However, it could also be used to recognise where the gaps may be and so the possibilities that could be explored in order to open up your repertoire of spiritual engagements. In this case I think that bearing in mind things like MBTI shadow and stage of life are important also.

Quantum encryption

MetroWest alreeady they're at it. This is one of those 'watch this space' things: practical uses of quantum effects. In this case to make encryption spy-proof. Those literate in pop science will recognise the famous wave/particle duality and the observer's paradox making entrances as practical technology here. Now we only await Schrodinger's cat and we will have the cat-in-the-hat-trick.

Recycling Cost Overstated

Wired News: Study: Interesting article where genuine progress is measured factoring in externalities -see what a difference it makes to the accounting. As Adbusters and others are saying: a key reform to build a better world is to make sure that the true costs are borne by the producers and consumers; this means feeding the external costs back into the system so that proper decisions can be made that make roomfor social and planetary costs. It's daft to call cleaning up pollution a contribution to GDP -it's a cost and any system that makes it look like it'd be good to have more pollution so that there's more to be spent on cleaning it up must surely be crazy, but that's the system as we have it now. Replace GDP with GPI.

Today's youth: anxious, depressed, anti-social

SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society |: "'We are doing something peculiarly unhelpful for adolescent mental health in Britain,' said Sharon Witherspoon, deputy director of the Nuffield Foundation"
Perhaps this is no surprise after noting the figures for suicides among teenagers and young people. The important thing to note is that we can compare with other developed nations and see that Britain has a bigger than average problem. There is further research to be done on cuases. However, I want to link this with the fact also that the British churches are losing touch with young people [physically and emotionally, as in; they are not involved]. Not causally [though who knows?] but in terms of having something positive to offer by way of the sense of purpose and security and being loved that the gospel message brings [or should].

I also wonder at linking with things like: increased alcohol consumption [especially binging]; bad diet; alienation from positive role models and the natural environment ... any other ideas?

Britons working shorter weeks

Guardian Unlimited Money | News_ |
I wonder what this is about? You see I seem to have been dealing with lots of people who are overworking. So my question is how these figures breakdown. Is it that academics, senior bank employees and clergy are fairly isolated examples of losing out in reducing their working hours? Or what?

It's certainly god news and only if you held a particularly vicious form of Calvinist theology and one which felt that since the curse of work was given to us fallen we should jolly well suffer it and not seek to alleviate it and that the redeemed should be joyfully showing their elect status by showing how we can work ...

Anyway, in a [first] world where leisure is more plentiful and perhaps volunteering may become a bigger thing, what does it say that clergy appear to be increasingly stretched and consequently emotionally fragile [and therefore more insecure and so less able to handle volunteer workers?]. ... I suspect that there's some very intereting theology and deployment issues in all of this. I'll say no more since I suspect the conversation could be interesting ...

Has Blair the energy to convince Exxon?

Guardian Unlimited | Economic dispatch | Following last blog entry this is a good analysis of the issues to be faced.

Blair calls for UK to lead on climate change

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Blair calls for UK to lead on climate change: "'to acquire global leadership on the issue then Britain must demonstrate it first at home'."



I feel both hopeful and prepared to be disappointed on this. Tony seems to be saying things that I have certainly siad in sermons and in private over the last few years; but I can't see how the kind of government he has led for the last 7 years is going to do this; they've been too scared of vested interests and all to ready to concede to the rich and powerful. Watch this space!

The announcement of the death of Sci-fi is premature

The Globe and Mail: "'Science fiction has never been about the future, it's always been about the present day whether it's Victorian England that Wells was writing about or the post-9/11 era that I'm writing about,'"

That s why. Sci-fi at its best is about thought experiments about the effects of technology on the human social psyche and/or about a way to put magic back into storytelling without it seeming to be too childish [plausible magic: it's interesting to note Asimov's dictum that any sufficiently advanced technology would appear to be magic to someone unfamilier with it]. Sci-fi is an important tool in our kit for negotiating cultural change. Emergent church leaders should read more of the right kind of sci-fi stuff just to flex their social imaginations....

Coffee industry agrees code of conduct

Coffee industry agrees code of conduct (English Window, NZZ Online, 10. 9. 2004): "Signatories will have to pay minimum salaries, stop using child labour, allow trade union membership and stick to international environmental standards on pesticide and water pollution."

Looks intersting to those of us involved in fair trade issues: could this be a start of big change or is it posing? Read and make up your mind. I will be looking out for more comments and angles on this. and keep you posted

To have and to hold ... in separate accounts

Guardian Unlimited Money | News_ | To have and to hold ... in separate accounts: "She combed registry offices and wedding fairs to find 42 couples prepared to give separate interviews and asked them about their intentions. Some 69% used spoke of 'permanence' and growing old together; 59% said it was the right thing and, almost apologetically, used the word 'tradition'; 49% said 'commitment'; 44% said it seemed the next logical step; and 38% talked of public affirmation."

Interesting eh? It'd be interesting to see a breakdown of the figures quoted; noting that 'permanence' and 'commitment' could overlap semantically in this case did the spread of the use of such terms put things nearer 100%? It seems to me, in the light of the real figures for divorce, to emphasise that the crisis in marriage nowadays is not about intentions [or at least conscious ones] but of negotiating how to do it in the long haul. I write this against the background over the last 6 months of hearing of the marriages of three sets of people I respect and care about having caved in and with the prospect of my 18th wedding anniversary next Monday [Tracy and I are amazed and glad we're still going strong].

I am particularly interested in the public affirmation bit too: since a mantra of the latter part of the 20th century with regard to marriage was "it's between the two of us"; is there in this a return to a recognition that marriage is actually a social thing too [as I used to try to get over in marraige preparation in parish ministry]?

Then there's the significance of the seperate bank accounts. Intersting ly enough Tracy and I have just taken tthe step of having an account each which is separate and single: in my case because I need a fees from business account and in her case to stash away money for treats. At one time I would have seen separate accounts as tantamount to reneging on marriage vows. Yet still I wonder whether separate accounts for newly weds is actually a sign of something more profoundly disquieting from the keeping options open culture we live in: since money is probably THE major medium of independence, is it a tacit declaration that marriage may be breakable? Or is it a sign of healthy ability to remain individuals? Or something of both?

I know I will continue to mull this over. Anyone want to join in?

Cooking For Engineers: ...

Cooking For Engineers: Recipe File: Basic Tiramisu. Speaking about male/female differences, I just came acrosss this site and judging by the hits etc it seems to be touching a nerve. I must admit I do respond well to the diagrammatic presentation of the cooking/preparation process [carfully tabulated]. Hmmm, Myers-Briggs typing stuff here too, I think.

more women than men to be priested

Times Online - Newspaper Edition"Next year the official projection of the Church of England’s planned ordinations is 124 women and 123 men."

This is interesting since I have long smiled quietly to myself as I reflected that the congregations in front of me were usually about 60% female [or more] and yet most of the leadership were male. The Times seems to regard this as a bad thing judging by the weight of it's quotes.

I would question the bit that tells us "As the number of women priests has increased, so has the proportion of women attending church. Church researchers say that the 45% to 55% male to female split in parish congregations 10 years ago has now shifted to a 37% to 63% split in favour of women." Because studies I was aware of as well as occasional checking up have tended to reveal the proportion given as the recent one as persisting for the last 20 years at least. SO I would need to see the figures but I think that it may not be accurate in the terms presented.

Of course the bigger question is why church has been relatively unattractive to men or proportionally more so to women. I also have a hunch that in alt.worship it may not be so. And if that is right there's another question as to why. I'd love to hear other views on this.

Clean Air Tech Has Ancient Roots

Wired News: Watch this space. Could this recycled technology help both global warming and soil fertility and erosion? I would hope that it could but I really don't khow enough yet.

zombie PCs: $2,000-$3,000

USATODAY.com. This is, of course, the next bit of the saga in spam-related pestilence. Spammers get around the restrictions they sometimes encounter by planting mini-programmes in other people's machines through what are commonly called viruses and then these are used to fire of bursts of spam. Read all about it. If you wnat to see the issue from the point of view of a victim whose machine was zombified then read this. In fact this latter article goes on to explain how phishing works and altogether gives you enough info to be concerned to make sure you try ot keep your machine spring-clean as much as poss.

In a secret Paris cavern, the real underground cinema

Who'd have thought it; if I'd seen it in the DaVinci Code I'd have thought it yet another example of the author's lack of acquaintance with the geography he writes about ... But WHY would someone want to do something like this underground cinema thing for what appears to be so innocent? It's most curious.

The Age of the Essay and the age of the blog

Pre.S.[ie a PS written after the rest but put before the main text]: as you will see the essay this comments on I found pretty stimulating. I commend it to you.

This is facinating. Not only giving the history of 'the essay' and of English as an academic subject but some insightful history of the modern university. This is a must-read kind of thing for people engaged in the modern university and, well, education generally.

I liked this quote: "Montaigne's great discovery. Expressing ideas helps to form them. Indeed, helps is far too weak a word. Most of what ends up in my essays I only thought of when I sat down to write them. That's why I write them.".Said like a true extravert. It's certainly true for me: the act of expressing actually creates a dialogue between what I think I might think and the emerging text which stands for the hypothesized reader. I sometimes discover, having written [or having said] that I don't really think what I thought I thought [!] -or at least my thinking has evolved and grown in the act of expression. This brings in the link between the word essay in English and 'essai' [=try or test] in French. An Essay is trying out an idea or a set of ideas and seeing whether they 'fly'.

Then this also chimes with my experience; "Just as inviting people over forces you to clean up your apartment, writing something that other people will read forces you to think well." -Perhaps this is part of the point of blogging for some of us: it forces us to a greater depth and clarity of response to whatever it is that attracts our attention enough to decide to blog about. Again I can see how that seems to be the case for me. Though unlike an essay we can just leave things hanging on a blog. But maybe that's no bad thing; being in process is okay. As Paul Graham says: "An essay has to come up with answers. They don't always, of course. Sometimes you start with a promising question and get nowhere. But those you don't publish. Those are like experiments that get inconclusive results. An essay you publish ought to tell the reader something he didn't already know." -so blogging is the essays that don't get polished or necessarily come to conclusions and are much more 'in pocess' thinking. We do publish the experiments and we don't necessarily think we have to come up with answers [how pomo darling]. In fact it is a more comunitarian thing: we are inviting others to contribute to the thinking through: we are seeking to be resourced as well as to resource.

I particularly like the idea that an essay should aim to find a surprise rather than flow down a predictable course. just as in life we should collect surprises rahter than simply confirmations of what we thought we knew already.And it ain't cool, therefore: "People trying to be cool will find themselves at a disadvantage when collecting surprises. To be surprised is to be mistaken. And the essence of cool, as any fourteen year old could tell you, is nil admirari. When you're mistaken, don't dwell on it; just act like nothing's wrong and maybe no one will notice."

The more I look into learning, the more I realise that life-coaching is tapping into something immensly important. Life-coaching is about being a leanring facilitator. One of the things a coach needs to become skilled at is curiosity; the habit of noticing that there is something interesting going on and then pursuing it. As Paul says, "make a habit of paying attention to things you're not supposed to, either because they're "inappropriate," or not important, or not what you're supposed to be working on. If you're curious about something, trust your instincts. Follow the threads that attract your attention. If there's something you're really interested in, you'll find they have an uncanny way of leading back to it anyway, just as the conversation of people who are especially proud of something always tends to lead back to it.".

So much to think about here. One of the truly interesting pieces of writing of the last few months for me.

Why spam keeps coming

Basically it pays. This article does the sums and show up the depth of the problem. Seems to me the only solution can be to hit the spammers hard in the wallet.

UAW forges alliance with ecologists - 9/5/04

In "the long term, the “blue-green” alliance could sow the seeds for new government initiatives on fuel economy that shift the debate away from 1970s-style government regulations."

This on the back of a hybrid SUV coming off the production line at Ford.

Philipino wind power

"Once harnessed and supported by the right policy and financial incentives, the Philippines could easily leapfrog into the renewable age and avoid being locked in an obsolete fossil-fuel based energy path," said Athena Ronquillo-Ballesteros, energy campaigner of Greenpeace International.



The other thing to pick up from the article is that there have been successful precedential projects there.

There is an alternative

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Interesting article by George Monbiot about the prospects for nuclear power. I would really like to see further comment in the light of this article which I picked up on TheGreening.
Essentially the question is whether or not the Chinese emthod mitigates the objections to nuke power enough. The threats of meltdwon and contamination through gas release are considerably lower but the disposal of spent fuel and the transportation and security of fuel and the environmental impacts of mining uranium need further comment. If anyone tracks down further info I'd be happy to see it.

Greenbelt pix

Just got photos online some of them are taken at Greenbelt. When we first got there it was a bit misty
But soon we had glorious -if chilly- evenings:

I still think the setting is spectacularly pretty and these perhaps gives you an idea



Part of the Sunday morning communion:

And here was an attempt to capture the way the tents glowed at night with the moon behind them; unfortunately I'm not a trained photographer but I have learnt a bit more fromthis attempt and I quite like it anyway.

Given the light conditions, the inexperienced photographer and the speed with which this picture was taken, it's no surprise it comes out thus. However, somehow the abstractness of it to me conveys the warm cosy feeling of being in the tent with a bottle of beer at night among friends

Europe Warned About Warming

Wired News: Perhaps not a lot new here but this article his a good gateway to other reports and articles and sets out the latest report briefly.

Technology that fakes the 'truth'

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Technology that fakes the 'truth': "Rather than believe everything, people will believe nothing. They will then begin to look more for analysis of the news to help them make sense of it and some merging of traditional mass media and (heavily branded) blogging will provide a framework for this to take place: blogging may be an unusually important part of mass media's future."

It's quite a frightening world where you don't really feel you can beleive anything that is shown on video or by any other medium. So much has to be taken on faith. I think that perhaps this article is right in suggesting that the role of trusted gatekeepers becomes even more important.

I once remember a tutor of mine saying that what a wonderful thing it would be if 'the world' knew Cristians to be keepers of confidences. I would apply this here: what if Christians could be tursted to really want and find the truth or at least to say they didn't know ... but I fear it won't happen.

Over and out: retirement and stress

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian |t. Useful insight on the issues of stress appicalbe more widely than retirees. Important for pastral workers and, well, all of us really, to understand.

Cross carrying

Sacred Space - the prayer site run by the Irish Jesuits: "You tell me to carry my cross, Lord. You are not telling me to go out looking for the cross, in practices or penances. Rather I find it under my nose. Every encounter that costs me, that rubs off my ego, is part of your plan for me. I start with my own body and heart. The aches and limitations of my limbs, my awkwardness and shyness, are part of my cross. I often wish I was different, but this is me, and I will learn to love me as you do. When I can't think of anything to say in company, or when I think of the wrong things, I'm carrying my cross.



What consoles me is that you like my company. You can put up with my silences. You accept the grumpy mutterings that at times are the closest I come to conversation. I don't always feel good about myself. There are moments when, like Groucho Marx, I would not want to belong to any club that was ready to accept me as a member. You not merely accept me, but make me feel I belong, a first-born child in whom you delight."



What I found helpful in this reflection was the reminder that our crosses aren't sought; they belong to us already and we take them up by accepting them as such and working with them, learning from them.



I also responded to the last paragraph; while we may be grumpy -or worse- each of us is still the first-born, delighted-in child.

A vocation-shaped church?

I think because at he time I was a university chaplain and because I am a supporter of CPAS I got invited to this consultation which is taking place next week the matter is basically about encouraging people in their twenties to be ordained. University chaplaincy gets mentioned three times in the brieifng papers as an important ministry for encouring vocations to ordained minsitry among younger people.So guess what I want to say? Right! If it's an important part of church strategy to have chaplains, then make sure that dioceses can't pull the plug!

More importantly though ... well let me share with you some of my repsonse which I hope to post on the consultation's discussion site in dues course.Apologies that I don't have links to offer for some of the references. I would love to have a few responses to this either on of off the record as I can then take any insights to the consultation with me.

There are a handful of concerns which mostly interrelate. First we have things that are to do with social and cultural trends: work-life balance; leaving home issues; education; portfolio living and careers; suspicion of institutions. Then there is something around perceptions of clergy and clergy life: role-modelling etc. And there are also some strategic issues, such as recruitment fairs, role of university chaplains, assimilating change. And last but by no means least, spiritual issues -what might all of this mean in God's economy?

Ruth Jackson's idea of recruitment fairs is a good one in terms of putting the idea out there. It may turn out to be more of a seed sowing exercise for reasons that are mentioned in the papers and which I touch on below but I would add to it, however, that there is a biblical model of vocation being initial repentance into Christian life; the apostle Paul is essentially converted and commissioned at the same time [never mind that it took, what? Seventeen years to get it all together, there's a lesson there too]; his calling into discipleship of Christ is calling into apostolic service. Theologically, in fact, we might say that vocation is part of the package even if experientially it takes time to unpack and unwrap. So there may even be something in the possibility of evangelism through vocational awareness-raising. Could we envisage also putting on courses to help people to meet the genuine occupational requirement of Christian faith? A kind of vocational Alpha, anyone?

Current trends do militate against us in several ways; distrust of institutions makes joining one as a paid member unattractive particularly as the popular-cultural images are usually mocking. The Guardian reports on a survey that shows that “a fundamental shift has taken place in the attitudes of the new, younger, workforce towards the balance between work and family life from their parents' generation”. And an article in the Times on 25 June this year makes the point that younger workers seem to prefer to have more of a life-work balance than the older workers who put up with a work-life balance [my phrasing], if we add to this for our purposes the modelling that clergy offer wittingly or otherwise of overwork and workaholism then we can see that something unattractive [and even anti-gospel] is apparently being offered.

Add to that the tendency among clergy to try to out-do each other on the ”I'm so busy” front ... well, I'm sure you get the picture. Who would want to join a profession where they see increased workloads and the increased emotional fragility of clergy stretched by overwork or too much soul-destroying and life-denying work? Given the current prognoses it is not hard to guess that greater stretching and even greater spans of care are likely to be the lot of many clergy if something doesn't change. It isn't sufficient simply to say that it is down to them to sacrifice; ordination ordinarily carries a duty to ones own health and family in order to sustain the ministry. The bad habits of one generation should not be imposed on another: more fool the older generation for accepting unholy conditions and compromises, we cannot build a strategy on wrongdoing and attempt to shame others into reproducing those patterns by inferring that it is a godly sacrifice. I'm not saying there shouldn't be sacrifice, merely that it should be the right sacrifice.

We need also to remember, as Ian Aveyard alludes, that studies have shown that children are leaving home later, getting married later and are generally not rushing into careers as quickly, added to which we need to take in the tendency to avoid commitments which appear to foreclose options. Indebtedness is increasingly an issue as university study has grown and the funding for that tends to leave ex-students owing an average of £15,000 which drives a culture where the imperative is to get as high a paid job as possible to clear that debt so that you can get on with the rest of your life. All of this militate against ordination for stipendiary ministry. That's not to say it prevents but it certainly hinders younger people from offering for ordination.

The days of a job for life are largely gone, portfolio careers are more and more normal and this fits well with an options-open culture but maybe not so well with the current C of E modus operandi. Perhaps the rise of SSM and OLM figures is supportive of the idea that people are not necessarily looking for a whole-life career? Perhaps not even being called to it?

There are structural/institutional implications in all of this. We cannot look at the issues of encouraging younger ordinands without taking in the wider context. The wider context I am particular concerned and interested by is that of continuing institutional church decline. This brings with it the suspicion that we are recruiting to an institution that cannot sustain the pattern of ministry that we are recruiting for. If God is involved in the calling -as we believe must be the case- then perhaps we do have to take seriously the possibility that there are fewer vocations of this sort because the church of the future doesn't need them. This is surely an implication of the different patterns of ministry parts of he Mission Shaped Church report.

In fact, perhaps most importantly, we should also be asking whether the actual vocations of younger people are really fitting the institution as we now conceive it to be. Stephen Spriggs's piece raises the issue of whether God has a reason for calling less young people into ordained ministry noting also that there is a huge increase in, for example, church-based youth workers.

I want to push this further: because the outlook and situation of the church in this country is changing God is not calling people to the roles that we traditionally have seen ordained ministry as consisting in, rather God is calling people to the roles and ministries that are and will increasingly be needed over the next 30 years or more. If we insist that these things are not what we want or need for our vision of the Church of England, then so much the worse for us. If, on the other hand, we recognise that perhaps God is calling for future development and work then we have a resource to help us to plot a course for the future. By listening to the sense of vocation of existing and potential future leaders in the church, we can gain an insight into the shaping of the church for the next generation. We need to allow a situation where the vocations of the members of the church determine the shape of the church rather than trying to force vocations on people to fit the felt-needs of an institution decisively shaped by a dying culture. In other words, before we can be a mission-shaped church we have to be a vocation-shaped church.

A further implication is how we then act to match up the callings with the historic three-fold ministry. I would suggest we need to think seriously about a whole raft of things here but let me take one idea from the briefing papers and provoke with it. If God is calling lots of people and many of them are interpreting that call as being fulfilled in church-based youth work, and if it is the case that at least some of those people continue to serve the church in a full-time capacity -are they then,at that point, deacons by calling? Some then do offer for presbyteral ministry ...

Out work is twofold then: to shape our church to be able to fill its sails with the wind by reshaping 'the ministry' and to enable our younger presbyterally inclined members to see that their vocation may indeed be fulfilled by just such an ordained ministry. I do not believe however that we can go on trying to recruit as if the institution has no changing to do.